This morning the Ithaca Journal has a two-page opinion section but still felt the need to list letters and publish them online. Unfortunately, all the letters for Town Board wound up in the online pile.
Dawn Potter - a Bethel Grove resident with an Ithaca mailing address - wrote to support Democrat David Makar.
There are three letters for Republican Dan Tier. Republican County Legislator Mike Hattery writes to support Tier, as does Daniel Hill of Dryden.
The last letter surprised me. There were complaints from Thomas Quinn and Jim Crawford about letters supporting David Makar with Ithaca addresses, which Makar has written about, finding two genuine out-of-Town letters. After that, I really didn't expect to see a letter for Tier from out-of-Town, even Cortland. Tom Parsons of Cortland writes a letter for Tier whose last paragraph starts shamelessly with an undeserved (and apparently unresearched) slam:
Unlike his opponent, Dan didn't just start volunteering in his community because he wanted to run for office.
It doesn't strike me as likely that Tom Parsons has met David Makar, seen him in action, or had a chance to evaluate his motives. I suppose I should get used to these below-the-belt tactics, since we see hit pieces and false claims pretty much every election season, but it's hard to lower my expectations. (And I'd rather not respond in kind.)
Looking at Dryden letters in other races, we have:
Former Dryden Democratic Chair William Blackwell of Etna writing in support of Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton
Dan Lamb of Dryden writing in support of Congressional candidate Mike Arcuri
Norma Totman of McLean writing in support of Sheriff Peter Meskill
There's also a letter supporting Etna resident and Libertarian Congressional candidate Mike Sylvia from Christa Siering of Trumansburg.
In dueling guest columns, Democratic Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton writes about problems with a proposed school spending cap, while Republican challenger Jim Rohan questions the STAR rebate check and problems in the state's school funding mechanisms.
Posted by simon at November 2, 2006 8:42 AM in Ithaca Journal , politics (local) , politics (state)
Always sad to see GOP smear tactics, lies, and innuendoes trickle down from the national to the local level. Perhaps you should have been stressing that unlike Makar, Tier works in ITHACA.